Visions of a lost age

[Vernian]

I was aiming for the feel of an old English mansion build in a forest, almost like it should be a surprise to see it there. So the first crop shows a lot of green, but I'm wondering if that's not overpowering the building a bit, on the other hand I don't know if the second crop conveys the same feeling.

I have done a little post processing to darken the sky a touch and bring the building out, but deliberately left it feeling a little lightened (over exposed maybe?) because I thought that would add to the atmosphere.

I would appreciate comments/suggestions on my composition and cropping and anything else you want to comment on.





Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/5.0
Focal Length 12.8 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias -0.33 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

Oh and one last question, I took this in central London on a typical British rainy day when there was a break in the rain. There was a bit light of mist settling over the building, but despite several different settings I have not managed to capture that at all. Is there something I can do to enhance my chance of capturing light mist?

[bruceliv]

I prefer the 2nd image. I would probably clone out the lonely branch (upper right) because it's distracting. I have doubts about the sky color, something looks off a bit. Perhaps move hue adjustment from green towards a tad of magenta.

Using layers and masks in post processing, you can add some mist. This is done easily in Photoshop, but I don't know if it can be accomplished in Helicon. If you overexposed in PP, without masks, you'd lose the fine mist.

BTW, when I look at your images on flickr, on black, it's obvious you rotated the images. Once can see the edges. It's ok to rotate, but make sure you do it within the confines of your image.

[Pitrih]

i would pick the first one, but i would cut less from the top than you did in the second version.
other thing, there is a glow around the building that distracts me.
anyway, it's a nice picture

[Vernian]

Thanks for the replies

@bruceliv
I agree the sky does look a bit strange, I'll play with it some more. As for rotating, thanks so much for pointing it out - I think I usually crop a little when I rotate, but clearly not here, I'll have to go through all my processed photos now to check :-)

@Pitrih
There was a bit of a glow when I took the photo which was one of the reasons I took it, but I think you are right, I overemphesised it when I tried to darken the sky.